Bangladeshis in snatching net

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Four Bangladeshis have been arrested on the charge of snatching Rs 4 lakh from a schoolteacher at the Bypass-Beleghata Main Road crossing, where the complainant had allegedly turned up to settle a land purchase deal with the accused.

The four were rounded up on Sunday night from Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas where they were staying at a rented house.

Police said the alleged mastermind, Matalab Mollah, introduced himself to the teacher, Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, on a private bus.

Bhattacharya, a Sonarpur resident, was sitting, while Mollah was standing in front of him on the bus travelling from Esplanade to Sealdah.

“Mollah got into conversation with Bhattacharya, saying the teacher resembled someone in his family,” said Pallab Kanti Ghosh, joint commissioner of police, crime.

“Mollah later said he could help me buy a two-cottah plot in Mukundapur, off the Bypass, for Rs 4 lakh. I found the deal attractive and agreed to proceed,” Bhattacharya mentioned in his complaint.

The teacher went to Mukundapur the next day. “Mollah and another man, who identified himself as Rabiul Sheikh, showed me a plot. I liked it. The duo asked me to turn up with the money at the Bypass-Beleghata Main Road crossing the next morning, from where they said they would take me to the owner,” the teacher wrote in the complaint.

The victim turned up at the crossing with the money. “Mollah and another associate, Mohammad Abed Ali, came and asked about the money. When Bhattacharya showed them the small bag he was carrying, Ali snatched it and the duo ran away,” said a detective department officer.

Sleuths came to know that the culprits were Bangladeshis staying at a rented house in Barrackpore. We planted our officers there and tracked them down. Apart from Mollah, Ali and Rabiul, the police arrested Ala Miyan Sheikh.